Research progress on synergistic effects of antimicrobial peptides and antibiotics

Recently, Medicinal Research Reviews (IF: 12.944, District 1), an international journal in the field of pharmacy, published a review article Antimicrobial peptides, conventional antibiotics, and their synergistic utility for the treatment of drug-resistant infections, written by Prof. Yipeng Wang's research group.

Antibiotics are one of the most widely used drugs in the world. Although antibiotics have made great contributions to human life and social development, their misuse and the spread of cross-resistance caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria have brought new challenges. With the emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens and the failure of conventional antibiotic monotherapy, the search for new alternative treatments is urgent.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are important immune defense molecules in multicellular organisms, with broad-spectrum bactericidal effects and bright development prospects as novel antimicrobial agents. At present, there are more than 30 AMPs-related drugs in the clinical research stage globally. Studies in recent years have shown that some AMPs have synergistic effects with conventional antibiotics. The combined use of AMPs and antibiotics can significantly reduce the dose of antibiotics used, toxic side effects, and the generation of drug-resistant strains, while markedly improving the therapeutic effect of antibiotics.

In this review, the author summarized the research progress of the synergistic effect of AMPs and conventional antibiotics, including the classification of AMPs and antibiotics, the synergistic effect of AMPs and conventional antibiotics, as well as the research and development status of AMPs applications. In addition, the current AMPs function and mechanism of action, relevant clinical trials of AMPs, and challenges faced in the development of future AMP drugs are also outlined.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Jiangsu Provincial Agricultural Science and Technology Independent Innovation Fund Project. The first author of the paper is Yiyun Zhu, a 2020 graduate student of the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University, and the corresponding author is Professor Yipeng Wang.

References:

Zhu Y, Hao W, Wang X, Ouyang J, Deng X, Yu H, Wang Y*. Antimicrobial peptides, conventional antibiotics, and their synergistic utility for the treatment of drug‐resistant infections. Med Res Rev. 2022;1‐46. doi:10.1002/med.21879. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/med.21879

Authors

1. The corresponding author

Prof. Yipeng Wang is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Biopharmaceuticals, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Soochow University. His research field is animal-derived medicinal protein/peptide discovery, structural modification, and application research. So far, he has published 62 peer-reviewed SCI research papers, which have been cited more than 1700 times (Google scholar). Besides, he has been authorized 51 national invention patents. He also has been invited as a reviewer by more than 30 peer‐reviewed journals.

2. The first author

Yiyun Zhu, a 2020 graduate student of Soochow University, mainly engaged in the research of medicinal peptides. At present, she has published 2 SCI research papers as the first author.

Research thoughts

Everything can be done by yourself. In the process of scientific research, we must discover problems actively before we can solve them. Our experimental attitude should be meticulous and peaceful. When doing experiments, be rigorous and do not miss any details. We need a lenient mind about the experimental results while not being pleased or saddened neither by external things nor personal gains or losses. If the experimental results are ideal, guard against arrogance and rashness, then summarize the methods; if not, be calm, find defects, and lay a good foundation for the next experiments. Remember to be humble, cautious, and hard working always.